What are you #initfor?

Most of us start off having little idea what we want to do with our lives. Then we go to school. And finish school. We get a job. Make a little money. Still we don’t know. We continue to evolve our career direction and aspirations and struggle to understand: What do I want to do with my life? What am I passionate about? How can I get paid to do what I enjoy? We want both personal and professional growth during the entire arc of our careers: more money, reasonable stability, and greater challenges. Most importantly, many of us yearn for the increasing influence and recognition that leads to deeper fulfillment and, perhaps, a defining legacy.  

At the same time, we accept that what the world needs is shifting, and that the world of work is necessarily, and rapidly, changing. Traditional career paths are waning, existing jobs are changing, and new jobs are emerging faster than ever, leaving us ever more dependent on our own ingenuity to navigate our careers in order to stay relevant and fulfilled. 

Given this disruption, how can we plan our careers in a way that allows us to thrive? The answer is one simple shift: to pivot career planning from what, to for what, focusing on purpose at the core.

Purpose is our “raison d’etre”, it describes what we’re in it for. It’s the point at which our talents, skills, abilities and passions intersect to solve a void or a need in the world around us. At this intersection, we have meaning because we are productive and valuable.

When we apply the powerful concept of purpose to our careers, they can transform. Nothing becomes meaningless; everything becomes a stone on the path to delivering our reason for existence to the world.

As organizational psychologist Adam Grant says, self esteem evolves in a career. We may start out feeling that we are not important, which over time develops into a belief that we are important, and finally a belief that we want to work on something important. The sooner we get to the final belief and align our careers to purpose, the more success we will achieve, and the more impact we will have.

As such, applying purpose to career planning controversially throws out the need for a traditional Individual Development Plan (IDP) which assumes we know where we want to go, and how we can get there. This new career planning approach involves a journey of self-reflection, discovering what we can do with our careers and our lives that is important and meaningful.  

1. Start by connecting the dots – what’s your story?

To plan for our careers, we must first understand our past and trace our path to the present, identifying the moments that have provided us great fulfillment, as well as those that have left us wanting. By taking stock in this way, we begin to make meaning of our lives and our choices, and apply the wisdom we have earned to chart a career path that amplifies what provides us joy and fulfillment while reducing elements that cause pain and discomfort.

To do that, we must simplify the complexity of our life history by creating stories. Organizing the past into a narrative is a way to understand the self, to recognize what is important, how it defines who we have become, and what could come next.

Looking at your career through the lens of a story allows you to identify and share the pivotal moments that have made you uniquely you. I always knew that I wanted to travel and build a career that would let me immerse myself in varied cultures. This desire originated from my own culturally diverse upbringing in the UK, with family roots originating in India and East Africa, exposing me at a young age to differences in language, race, religion, food, customs, and traditions. This inspired me to seek diverse experiences through my career and readily grasp job opportunities around the world, from London to Barbados, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Focus on…charting your story, considering how one experience has led you to another, and the recurring themes in your life that you want to weave through your career.

2. Explore your inner drivers

Your values are the beliefs that are most important and dear to you, which help you find your way in the dark; they are the measures you use to tell you whether your life is turning out as you dreamed.

When there is congruence between your career and your values, you’re at your best: satisfied, content, and able to realize your potential. But, when your career choices are misaligned with your values, it can be soul destroying. If family is one of your core values, but you’re working round the clock, you’re sure to be stressed, anxious, and deeply unhappy. If competition turns you off, but you work in a highly competitive environment, job satisfaction will be elusive. In these situations, understanding your values and gaining their counsel can help you to make decisions to reset your career path and live your intended life.

Of course, to seek counsel and guidance from your core values, you must first understand what they are; this requires a conscious effort to identify them so they can be applied to explore how to shape your career to make the most of your life.

Values tend to emerge naturally in a life story. In my own story, many things bubble up to the surface that express who I am: family, compassion, vulnerability, honesty, competence, perseverance, self-discipline, and accountability. As I reflect on the things that are most important to me, three consistent themes rise to the surface: gratitude, excellence, and growth. These three meta-values guide the way I live my life, the way I’ve shaped my career, the jobs I’ve chosen to take, and the organizations I’ve chosen to work for.

Focus on…narrowing a long list to 2-3 core values that are the most meaningful to you. This isn’t easy, and if you find yourself with too long a list, try grouping them into subcategories of more crucial ones.

3. Find the symbols that describe the impact you want to have in the world

The end goal is both your own success, as well as how you leverage your success to positively impact others. When people clearly define their purpose and align their work and lives to this, they create, innovate, and perform with more energy and greater success.

I was mentoring somebody recently. She felt stuck in her career and needed direction and grounding. We were discussing different career options, but the typical focus on “what next” was not resonating. So, I asked her to draw the image of the impact she hoped to have. She drew a lion.

“When we did the drawing exercise, it was a revealing moment. Before, I had thought of my career in a bit of a linear fashion – this job leads to that - the conventional career path. But this experience gave me a new way of looking at my career as more than just a series of jobs, and instead attaching it to something that I was striving for, some goal or outcome that was above everything else.

Drawing a lion made me aware that I want to create a space for other people to feel brave and that really impacted how I think about my career. Not only has this given me an ideal state to strive for but it has also informed my leadership style and how I interact with others, too.  

This exercise gave me a narrative to put over my career which has let me think more strategically and with more imagination, and a bit more heart, too!”

Focus on… using metaphors to help you to articulate the impact you want to have, and then derive a statement that describes how you want to live purposefully by helping, giving, or serving others. 

4. Explore new career paths and roles

Once you better understand what is important and meaningful to you, you can use this to expand your career options. The best jobs are those that feed your purpose, and to find those it is critical to consider how to exploit your skills and strengths, while keeping in mind current needs like income, flexibility, workplace environment, and interpersonal interactions. 

You may soon realize there are more career options than you originally thought that will enable you to meet your needs while doing meaningful work. My own purpose, to "inspire people to live a life with no limits", has led me across a range of careers including Music Teacher, Management Consultant, Internal Communications and Human Resources. Recently, I evaluated an unconventional career opportunity in Customer Success by considering how it would let me live my purpose. While the opportunity seemed unrelated to the career path in HR that I had set out for myself, I soon realized that there was congruence. As a Customer Success leader at LinkedIn, not only would I be able to wholly embrace my values of gratitude, excellence and growth, I would also have incredible opportunities to live my purpose through inspiring those around me – my team and my customers - to achieve things that they may not have thought were possible - essentially, to live a life with no limits. This discovery helped my decision-making process and opened up a new career path for me.

Focus on…sharing your purpose with your circle of trust to help you discover new career options and to challenge yourself to expand your expected career path. 

A compass to orient our careers

The two most important days in life are the day you were born and the day you find out why - Mark Twain

Purpose gives our lives meaning and joy and lies at the center of our being; it isn’t a place that we arrive at and stay forever, but a path that evolves and becomes more defined over the journey of our lives.

The world is changing at a dramatic rate, and our place in it must adapt as quickly. Understanding where our purpose lies provides us a North Star. The story we recognize in ourselves is the compass that helps us orient our careers even if the destination wavers. 

In this world of uncertainty and disruption, leading with purpose will allow you to take charge and bring meaning to your career, and to live with courage, hope, and a full heart. 

Image Credits

1. Cover Image: Conventional Sentiments - Rafal Oblinski
2. Introduction: Diary of Discoveries - Vladimir Kush
3. Connect the Dots: Don Quixote Exploding During His Rest - Jose Roosevelt
4. Find the Symbols: Wise Man - Aec Interesni Kazki
5. A Compass to Orient our Careers: Table Top Towers - Rob Gonsalves